Hydroponics is a branch of agriculture where plants are grown without the use of soil. The nutrients that the plants normally derive from the soil are simply dissolved into water instead, and depending on the type of hydroponic system used, the plant’s roots are suspended in, flooded with or misted with the nutrient solution so that the plant can derive the elements it needs for growth.
The term hydroponics originates from the ancient Greek “hydros,” meaning water, and “ponos,” meaning work. It can sometimes be mistakenly referred to as aquaculture or aquiculture, but these terms are really more appropriately used for other branches of science that have nothing to do with gardening.
As the population of our planet soars and arable land available for crop production declines, hydroponics will offer us a lifeline of sorts and allow us to produce crops in greenhouses or in multilevel buildings dedicated to agriculture. Already, where the cost of land is at a premium, crops are being produced underground, on rooftops and in greenhouses using hydroponic methods.
Perhaps you’d like to start a garden so that you can grow your own vegetables, but you don’t have the space in your yard, or you’re overwhelmed by pests and insects. This article will arm you with the knowledge you need to successfully set up a hydroponics garden in your home and provide suggestions of plants that will grow readily without a big investment.
ADVANTAGES OF HYDROPONIC FARMING
1. First, hydroponics offers people the ability to grow food in places where traditional agriculture simply isn’t possible. In areas with arid climates, like Arizona and Israel, hydroponics has been in use for decades. This science allows the people of these areas to enjoy locally grown produce and to expand their food production. Similarly, hydroponics is useful in dense urban areas, where land is at a premium. In Tokyo, hydroponics is used in lieu of traditional soil-based plant growth. Hydroponics is also useful in remotes locales, such as Bermuda. With so little space available for planting, Bermudians have turned to hydroponic systems, which take around 20 percent of the land usually required for crop growth. This allows the citizens of the island to enjoy year-round local produce without the expense and delay of importation. Finally, areas that don’t receive consistent sunlight or warm weather can benefit from hydroponics. Places like Alaska and Russia, where growing seasons are shorter, use hydroponic greenhouses, where light and temperature can be controlled to produce higher crop yields.
2. Hydroponics systems require only around 10 percent of the water that soil-based agriculture requires. This is due to the fact that hydroponic systems allow recycling and reuse of water and nutrient solutions, and the fact that no water is wasted. This can have quite an impact on areas where water is scarce, such as in the Middle East and parts of Africa.
3. Similarly, hydroponics requires little or no pesticides and only around 25 percent of the nutrients and fertilizers required of soil-based plants. This represents not only a cost savings but also benefits the environment in that no chemicals are being released into the air.
4. Hydroponics allows produce to be grown locally and requires fewer areas to import their crops, there is a reduction in both price and greenhouse gas emissions due to reduced transportation requirements
5. Next, hydroponics offers us the benefit of a shorter harvest time. Plants grown in this manner have direct access to water and nutrients and therefore, are not forced to develop extensive root systems to allow them to find the nutrients they need. This saves time and produces healthier, lusher plants in about half the time as traditional agriculture.
DISADVANTAGES OF HYDROPONIC FARMING
1. The first is the high capital investment when compared with soil farming. Though hydroponics is typically much cheaper over time, it does require a substantial upfront cost to establish any sort of larger system.
2. Next, there’s the threat of power failure, which can cause pumps to stop working and ruin crops.
3.Finally, many people fear that hydroponics requires substantial know-how and research, when in f act, it’s very similar to traditional gardening. After all, plants rely on certain nutrients in order to grow, and these nutrients don’t change, no matter which system you’re using.
WHAT DO PLANTS NEED TO GROW?
work. Generally speaking, plants need very little to grow. They can subsist on a simple blend of water, sunlight, carbon dioxide and mineral nutrients from the soil. Plants are able to transform light energy into chemical energy to form sugars that allow them to grow and sustain themselves. Thus, plants convert carbon dioxide, water and light into sugars and oxygen through a process called photosynthesis. The photosynthesis process requires that the plant has access to certain minerals, especially nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These nutrients can be naturally occurring in soil and are found in most commercial fertilizers Notice that the soil itself is not required for plant growth: the plant simply needs the minerals from the soil. This is the basic premise behind hydroponics — all the elements required for plant growth are the same as with traditional soil-based gardening. Hydroponics simply takes away the soil requirements.
HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS
Ebb and Flow hydroponics System require a medium, such as perlite which serves no purpose other than to provide stability for the plant’s roots. The plant derives no nutrients from the medium itself. Ebb and flow systems include a tray in which the plant is placed in a medium; below the tray in a separate container is a reservoir containing water and mineral solutions. The water from the reservoir is periodically pumped up into the tray. This floods the tray and allows the plants to absorb water and nutrients. Gradually, the water drains back into the reservoir due to gravity. Ebb and Flow systems work best with small plants like herbs and are typically used in smaller hydroponic setups, such as those in the home.
Nutrient Film Technique hydroponics System(NFT) is a water-based system that requires no soil or mediums. They’re built using wooden channels, which support polyethylene film liners. Plants such as tomatoes and cucumbers are placed on the channels, and the nutrient enriched water is pumped to the high end of each channel. The channels slope down, and water is collected at the end to be pumped back through the system and reused. Only plants with large established root systems will work with this technique.
Drip hydroponics Systems are set up almost identically to an ebb and flow system, although instead of water being pumped through one large tube, it’s pumped through many small tubes and drains onto the top of the plants. This system is ideal for plants that don’t yet have a developed root system, and like an ebb and flow system, works best with smaller plants.
Aeroponics hydroponics System
This is another water based system, which, like NFT, requires no medium. Plants are suspended on a tray, with their roots freely dangling below. The entire tray is placed into a box that has a small amount of water and nutrient solution in the bottom. A pump system is used to draw the water up, where it’s sprayed in a fine mist onto the entire plant and root in a continuous manner. This system is the most difficult to set up and manage, but it has great potential for large commercial uses.
Wick hydroponics Systems
It is similar to ebb and flow systems in that they’re medium-based. Plants are placed into a tray filled with a medium such as perlite or rockwool. At the base of each root, a nylon rope is placed, which is allowed to dangle freely, extending beyond the bottom of the tray. The entire tray is then placed on top of a reservoir. The nylon ropes absorb the water and nutrients, wicking them up to the plant’s roots. This system is desirable because it requires no pumps or other equipment to be purchased
Hydroponic Equipment
TOOLS AND ACCESORIES NEEDED TO COMPLEMENT HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS
1. The most important part of any hydroponic system is, of course, the nutrient solution used. Hydroponic nutrient solutions are readily available from gardening centers and nurseries and are composed of a blend of such nutrients as nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium and other minerals. Different nutrient solutions are used depending on what type of plants you’re trying to grow, what system you’re using and what mediums, if any, you’re working with.
2. As we’ve seen, hydroponics can be done with or without mediums. In cases where a medium is to be used, there are several choices available, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. One of the most popular mediums used in hydroponic gardening is rock wool, due to the fact that it’s both affordable and offers easy drainage. Other popular mediums include clay, perlite, vermiculite, sand and gravel. While gravel, clay and sand are both cheap and easily available, they’re heavy and don’t provide the same level of water circulation as perlite and vermiculite, which are more expensive but also more effective.
3. Another critical aspect of hydroponics is the use of light. As we discussed earlier, plants require light in order to perform photosynthesis. In areas where natural light is not available or plentiful, High-intensity Discharge (HID) lights are used instead. There are two main types of lights used for gardening, and each provides light over different parts of the spectrum. Metal Halides (MH) offer light from the blue end of the spectrum and are used with young plants and green, leafy vegetables. High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights are at the opposite end of the spectrum and are used for fruits or flowered plants [source:
4. Finally, any successful hydroponic system must be monitored so that PH levels are regulated. PH is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration, and gives us a value as to how acidic or alkaline the growth environment is. It must be kept within a certain range, depending on the plant and the medium used. The value can be measured using a PH testing kit, available at any gardening supply center.
HYDROPONICS YOU CAN DO YOURSELF AT HOME
When designing a home hydroponics system, it’s generally recommended that a medium be used. This tends to support the use of either an ebb and flow or wick system. While a wick system is incredibly cheap and simple to use, it’s hard to modify over time, and thus may produce poor results. There is concern over whether the plants are getting the right balance of nutrients, and if they’re not, it can be difficult to adjust the nutrient flow. For these reasons, many at-home hydroponic systems tend to be of the ebb and flow variety. Any hydroponic gardening center, and in fact, most traditional nurseries carry all of the equipment required for setting of a home system.
To begin building your ebb and flow system, you first must obtain the required materials. A basic system will require:
- A plastic tray capable of holding the weight of the medium, the plants and the water/nutrient solution
- A support structure to place the tray on (it can be as simple as a spare table)
- Container to be used as a reservoir (can be an aquarium, a plastic storage container or a garbage can)
- Aquarium pump capable of pumping 132 gallons per hour (500 liters per hour)
- Plant containers (make sure they have holes in the bottom to allow drainage)
- Growing medium
- Drainage tubing
- 24 hour timer
- Seeds or plant cuttings
- Nutrient solutions
ITo build your ebb and flow system, simply place the cuttings or seeds into the plant containers, stabilize them using the chosen medium, set the containers into the plastic tray and set it on the support structure. Fill the reservoir with three teaspoons of nutrient solution diluted in three gallons of water (11.36 liters). Install your tubing so that it runs from the top tray to the reservoir, and then set the aquarium pump in place. The timer should be set so that the pump causes the top tray to flood twice a day. Monitor PH levels every two weeks, and you should have no trouble growing your own hydroponic plants
The easiest plants to grow at home hydroponically are salad greens, such as lettuce and spinach. Herbs are fairly simple also, with basil, mint and parsley being popular choices. tomatoes cucumbers and peppers are possible, too, though these items require either a great deal of natural sunlight or the addition of grow lamps. Finally, any small plants and flowers can be grown using this system.
If you decide to grow plants that require a lot of light and sunlight is not readily available, consider adding an artificial lighting system. HPS lights work best for flowering plants or fruits, while metal halides work better for leafy greens like lettuce and spinach.
Certain plants can be difficult to grow using an ebb and flow system. These include potatoes, berries and bulb based flowers, such as daffodils. While these items can be grown hydroponically, they work better in water-based systems, such as NFT or aeroponics, which are better suited for larger commercial applications.
COUNTRIES THAT HAVE EMBRACED HYDROPONICS
1. In Tokyo, on the island nation of Japan, land is extremely valuable due to the surging population. To feed the citizens while preserving valuable land mass, the country has turned to hydroponic rice production. The rice is harvested in underground vaults without the use of soil. Because the environment is perfectly controlled, four cycles of harvest can be performed annually, instead of the traditional single harvest.
2. Hydroponics also has been used successfully in Israel, which has a dry, arid climate. A company called Organitech has been growing crops in 40-foot (12.19-meter) long shipping containers, using hydroponic systems. They grow large quantities of berries, citrus fruits and bananas, all of which couldn’t normally be grown in Israel’s climate. The hydroponics techniques produce a yield 1,000 times greater than the same sized area of land could produce annually. Best of all, the process is completely automated, controlled by robots using an assembly line-type system, such as those used in manufacturing plants. The shipping containers are then transported throughout the country
3. Hydroponics also will be important to the future of the space program. NASA has extensive hydroponics research plans in place, which will benefit current space exploration, as well as future, long-term colonization of Mars or the moon. As we haven’t yet found soil that can support life in space, and the logistics of transporting soil via the space shuttles seems impractical, hydroponics could be key to the future of space exploration. The benefits of hydroponics in space are two-fold: It offers the potential for a larger variety of food, and it provides a biological aspect, called a bioregenerative life support system. This simply means that as the plants grow, they will absorb carbon dioxide and stale air and provide renewed oxygen through the plant’s natural growing process. This is important for long-range habitation of both the space stations and other planets
4. Hydroponics is also being considered in third world areas, where water supplies are limited. While the upfront capital costs of setting up hydroponics systems is currently a barrier, in the long-run, as with all technology, costs will decline, making this option much more feasible. Hydroponics has the ability to feed millions in areas of Africa and Asia, where both water and crops are scarce.
